Aug. 1, 1900.] THE TEOPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
117 
the export duties are not infrequently evaded 
by Chinese smuggling firewood to Penang from 
the coast districts. This system of smuggling, 
however, which is chiefly carried out by means 
of tongkaiK/s (Chinese sailing boats), will soon 
be rendered much more difficult, if not entirely 
suppressed, by placing a steam launch at the 
disposal of the Forest Department. The high 
price of tin has caused an exceptional demand 
for timber and firewood, in connection with 
pumping engines and smelting furnaces ; and 
the export duty on Mangrove, the best kind of 
firewood, has been specially raised, as the supply 
is scarcely sufflcient for locil requirements. The 
Government nurseries are well stocked with 
tropical fruit trees, as well as with pepper and 
nutmegs, and the following economic plants, not 
hitherto grov^n here, have been added during 
the year and are so far doing well :— Jamaica 
Grape Fruit, Cola Nut, Central American Rubber 
(Uastilloa clastica). and -Japanese oranges. Owing 
to the great demand for seeds of the various 
rubber and gutta-producing trees, special atten- 
tion has been paid to the cultivation of these 
trees, including Para Rubber (^ci'ca brasiliensis), 
Getah Rambong (Ficus elastica) and Ceara Rubber 
(Manihot galziovii). The vegetables and roses 
gj.own on the Larut hills were less successfully 
pyltivated than usual, and this comparative want 
q£ success is ascribed by the Superintendent to 
jjjj abnormally wet season. 
^_ _ 
BURMA. AS A COUNTRY FOR SETTLERS: 
UNOCCUPIED HILL RANGES. 
A very instructive contribution on the 
above topic has appeared in a recent number 
of the Pioneer, setting forth the too little 
known advantages of Burma as a land where 
colonists will find it to their advantage to 
settle and utilise the resources of the country. 
The article is signed " M. H."— initials to 
which we can attach no name with any 
degree of certainty ; but it is evidently written 
by one who has the future development of 
Burma at heart, and yet knows the country 
sufficiently well to be aware of its disad- 
vantages which he does not conceal from his 
readers. Rice, the cultivation and export 
of rice in Lower Burma, was the first pro- 
duct to bring the country into notice, coffee 
following in its train. But it was not till 
Upper Burma was annexed that European 
attention wa3 turned to the new territory, 
where hitherto it was thought that natives 
alone could live : 
Thus it was, no doubt, that Burma became 
known as a country unsuitable for European 
settlers or planters, such as have taken up land 
in Ceylon and in various suitable districts of 
both Northern and Southern India, and until the 
annexation of Upper Burma there is no doubt 
that this generally accepted view of the resources 
of the country was a fairly correct one. It is 
true that even before the annexation of the 
Upper Provinces, attempts were made to grow 
coffee in one or two districts where a sufflcient 
altitude could be obtained, but the character of 
the country of Lower Burma, lying as it does for 
the most part only a hundred feet or so above 
sea level, precluded the possibility of favourable 
climate being found, except in one or tv^'o ex- 
ceptional localities. Such coffee as was produced, 
however, has been pronounced to be of excellent 
quality, and to have held its own in the market 
against that grown either in Ceylon or in India. 
The annexation of the new territory broiight 
■\yitliin I'ule a* vast dry tract, extending 
from the old frontier of British Burma to 
the borders of Assam and China. East 
north and west of this, is the untried field 
whose " points " the geographical advocate 
would define: — 
Commencing on the west, if we refer to a map 
we see that the hills which contain the Irrawaddy 
Valley on this side are the ranges called the 
Chin Hills, and that the avei-age distance from 
the river, to which they may be said to run parallel, 
is some 30 miles, roughly speaking. Now in these 
hills without penetrating very far from the plains 
altitudes of up to 5,000 and 6,000 feet are obtain- 
able, and although, perhaps, only the higher 
peaks reach the latter height yet plateaus, suit- 
able for cultivation, may be found averaging the 
former height, while lower than this localities 
abound which appear suitable from the point of 
view of space, soil, water, and drainage, for the 
cultivation of tea, coffee, wheat and rubber, as 
well as for the growth of European fruits, which 
have been already tried in these hills and found 
to do well. The country is, however, for tte 
most part denselj'' wooded, and a certain outlay of 
time and capital would necessarily have to be 
expended in clearing the ground, but this is also 
the case in most new districts either in Ceylon or 
India. Two advantages are most evident in the 
districts to which I refer firstly, that these hills 
are most excellently supplied with water, streams 
and small rivers intersecting them in all directions, 
some of the latter being narigable for country 
boats, and thus establishing communication with 
the Irrawaddy, into which they all eventually 
find their way ; and, secondly, that as the hills 
run generally parallel to the Irrawaddy for many 
miles north and south suitable localities for every 
sort of cultivation can be found within a large 
area, the whole of which is within easy and 
reasonable distance of the great trade artery of 
Burma leading to the third largest seaport of our 
Indian Empire. 
The supply of hired labour, it is stated, 
would depend on the goodwill of the people 
— vip till recently somewhat turbulent, among 
the Chin Hills ; but likely to improve as 
the feeling of trust is inculcated by our 
rule. Passing round to the east of the hills 
running from Rangoon to Mandalay, the 
writer comes upon the Shan States whosa 
great recommendation (in contrast with 
the country just described) is its peaceful 
character. 
Commencing then with the Southern Shan 
States we have a territory of some 40,000 square 
miles, a hilly country with mountain ranges run- 
ning through it from north to south, the inter- 
vening space between these almost parallel ranges 
being high-lying table lands of considerable 
extent. This table-land consists largely of rolling 
undulating country, sparsely dotted with clumps 
of bamboo surrounding villages of Shans and 
other hill tribes, its width from west to east is 
some forty miles and roughly it may be said to 
include about 2,000 or more square miles. The 
soil is clay gravel and sand, and for miles the 
eye sweeps over masses of grassy upland, no 
jungle and in fact few trees appearing, beyond 
clumps of pine and bamboo in feathery patches. 
The people who inhabit this country are a differ- 
ent race to the Burmans although there is no 
doubt, a certain admixture of Burman blood 
amongst them. They have, however, one common 
characteristic that of a quiet peaceable disposi- 
tion, and in this respect differ entirely from the 
hill tribes living to the west and north of Burma, 
Coffee and tea, it is believed, would gCQW 
wellin the land above alluded to, 
